This classic horror collection was originally published in 1982. Everything scary is in here. I really enjoyed this collection because Lansdale writing is so good. There is no overly descriptive parts or anything like that but still manage to create the feeling of being inside the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

This is an easy 5 star. One of my favorite authors. This book is a great way to introduce a legend to new readers and a must have for fans. Will eagerly recommend.

Many of these stories can be found elsewhere and it's a good introduction to Mr. Lansdale. If you're an old fan, you'll know what you're getting into. If you're a newbie, you're in very good hands, but consider yourself warned. Joe doesn't do trigger warnings, if you pick up a Joe Lansdale book, that your trigger-warning, you don't know what the fuck your getting into, but he's one of the best to ever do it and he'll take good care of you.

A great anthology, as a Lansdale "old-head", I can't believe I've never heard of, much less read, Night They Missed the Horror Show, but holy shit! I won't soon forget it.

"Even with all that he had faced, vampires, werewolves, walking dead and monsters from the edges of time, he felt his skin crawl."

Joe R. Lansdale's upcoming collection features various works spanning his career. Some of these are deeply routed in the dark and macabre, monsters that are supernatural as well as humanm science fiction, Lovecraftian and so much more.

The author does great work in incorporating these unsettling tales with very real points of view on violence and racism.

Featured in this collection are the following:

Introduction by Joe Hill
“The Folding Man”
“Hoodoo Man and the Midnight Train”
“God of the Razor”
“My Dead Dog Bobby”
“Tight Little Stitches in a Deadman’s Back”
“By Bizarre Hands”
On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folk
“Love Doll: A Fable”
“Mister Weed-Eater”
“The Bleeding Shadow”
“Not From Detroit”
“The Hungry Snow”
“Dog, Cat, and Baby”
Bubba Ho-tep
“Fish Night”
“Night They Missed the Horror Show”

A lot of these have stuck with me and I won't be forgetting them anytime soon. If anything this has made me want to pick up more by Joe R. Lansdale.

This collection of 16 horror stories, each with a short introduction by Lansdale, is a great introduction to his weird Westerns and other supernatural tales. There's plenty of diversity among the stories, and each has its own particular kind of horror. Some of these are well-known in one form or another, such as Bubba Ho-Tep, but others have been less widely published or reprinted and will be new to readers. As in all of his work, Lansdale tackles race and racism, misogyny, domestic violence and abuse, and body horror in forthright ways, revealing to readers that a lot of horror is constructed by society. This collection would be perfect for a reading group paired with Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country or P. Djèlí Clark's Ring Shout.

"The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale" is one of the few anthologies that consistently hit the mark for me - Lansdale is just that good. Anyone who's a fan of folk horror or horror tinged in noir or Americana will find something to enjoy here; his stories run the gamut from humorous to terrifying.

Thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a huge fan of Joe Lansdale having read Savage Season and The Nightrunners back in the day. Many of this short stories were revisits for me having read them in the past. Several, believe it or not, were first-time reads. I have never read Bubba Ho-Tep or watched its faithful movie adaptation. It was a deilight to read for the first time.

Highly recommended horror collection.

4.5 stars
As far as short story collections go this is one of the best. It enjoyed every single story, which is quite rare for me. Landfall is top tier as far as horror goes and if you haven’t read him or wanted to dip your toes, this is the perfect palace to start.

As a reader, Joe Lansdale makes me happy. He somehow writes exactly what I want to read. To paraphrase a recent Stephen King title, I like it darker, and Lansdale always, always delivers.

As a sometimes writer, Joe Lansdale makes me pissed off. Despite how prolific he is—and make no mistake, he’s very prolific—and despite working in a wide variety of genres, including horror, crime, suspense, science fiction, fantasy, and often a mix of any and all of them, his work is always so damn good. He sets unreasonably high expectations for the rest of us. I mean, come on, Joe. Slip up once in a while. Write a shitty sentence.

The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale is, as the title suggests, essential reading for horror fans. This collection is a retrospective of sorts, dipping into every part of Lansdale’s career, including some of his earliest work. While there is plenty of humor here, as there nearly always is with Lansdale, this is a dark, dark, bunch of stories. There are monsters here, of both the supernatural and human variety. Lansdale never looks away from violence, racism, hate, and evil, and he never allows the reader to look away either. In prose honed to a razor sharp edge, he plays all over the horror sandbox, from crime and suspense to southern gothic, science fiction to Lovecraftian horror.

If you’re a Lansdale fan, as I am, you’ll find many of your old, bloody favorites here. Mine include:
• God of the Razor
• Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back
• On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folk
• The Bleeding Shadow
• Bubba Ho-tep
• Night They Missed the Horror Show

Honestly, I could have made it easier and listed all the stories. Lansdale is a national treasure.

The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale will be published October 7, 2025, and is available for pre-order now. If you’re easily frightened, or easily offended, this might not be your cup of tea. Otherwise, don’t miss this one.

More recently Joe R. Landsdale is better known for his off-beat, gritty crime novels and weird westerns, but this aptly titled collection reminds us just how great a horror writer he is.
The book features many of his finest horror short stories from across the decades, many of which have been previously collated in other collections before - so value here may depend on your existing Landsdale library.
But taken as a standalone horror collection this one packs one hell of a wallop and reminds us that Landsdale is a tour de force when it comes to the darker side of fiction.
Landsdale's character work and worldbuilding has always been first rate and it's again on show here with a range of rich worlds populated by nasty characters ranging from the supernatural (demonic nuns) to the worst of humanity (rapist preachers).
Of course, his most famous short story Bubba Ho-Tep gets a run but it's just one of many great stories such as Tight Little Stitches in a Deadman's Back, On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folk and the Bleeding Shadow. But ultimately every story here is a standout in its own right.
Due for an October release, mark this one down as essential reading for this year's Halloween period.

Every single Joe R. Lansdale book is a treasure. Perhaps, some more than others -- The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent comes to mind -- but all still treasure, nonetheless, and books themselves are treasures, Lansdale or otherwise, but there's something just right, just perfectly tantalizing about a Lansdale tome.

What I suspect it is, beyond flat out damn good story telling, is that there's none other. Joe R. Lansdale is hisownself through and through, and thus is his own genre: the Lansdale genre. Which, that's a vibe I get down with.

Whether it's horror flavored, science fiction, mystery, or what all else, I'm here for it. Lansdale gets me to the page so fast there isn't even time to ask, "where are we going?"

And that answer just may depend on the terrain.

With this book, we're in the horror zone, and as such, where we're going is hell. But fret not, for there are refreshments aplenty.

This book, it "gives me a chill just thinking about it." Talk about a fun chill.

If Lansdale's your style, if horror's your style, this one's for you. It's got it all, and it's brilliantly paced/sequenced, too. You'll be slipping from one world to another with speed and ease. Just, I don't know, maybe hug a puppy now and then between stories. These pages are dark. Exquisite, yes. But dark.

Joe R. Lansdale has always had a talent for dragging readers down dusty backroads into strange, terrifying, and often darkly funny places and The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale is a prime showcase of that talent at its finest. This collection is lean, brutal, and consistently strong throughout—something rare in most story collections.

"The Hoodoo Man and the Midnight Train" kicks things off with a sharp, atmospheric tale that feels like Lansdale at his pulp-noir best. "Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back" might be one of the most haunting stories I've read in years—emotionally raw, visually harrowing, and deeply unsettling in ways that linger.

Lansdale’s unique blend of western grit and horror is on full display in standouts like "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks," "The Hungry Snow," and the now-iconic "Bubba Ho-Tep." They read like grindhouse westerns filtered through an apocalyptic fever dream—and it works so well.

"The Bleeding Shadow" feels like it could exist in the same universe as Sinners (if you've seen it, you'll get it)—blues, demons, and darkness in equal measure. And of course, the collection ends with a gut punch: "Night They Missed the Horror Show." It's raw, grotesque, and disturbingly relevant—a reminder that the real horror sometimes wears a human face.

Most story collections have a few forgettable entries, but this one doesn’t. Even the lesser-known tales land hard. The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale lives up to its name: it’s essential. Whether you're a longtime fan or just discovering him, this is a hell of a ride.

Title: The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale
Author: Joe R. Lansdale
Introduction by: Joe Hill
Publisher: Tachyon Publications
Release Date: October 7, 2025
Genre: Horror / Short Fiction / Southern Gothic
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

Joe R. Lansdale doesn’t write horror—he body-slams it, gut-punches it, and then cracks a beer with it while the devil sings backup. The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale is exactly what it promises: a brutal, bizarre, and brilliant retrospective that cements Lansdale’s place not just in the horror canon, but at the bar where Twain, Poe, Faulkner, and King are all trying to outdo each other.

From undead strippers to demon nuns, possessed cars to pissed-off Elder Gods, these sixteen stories are pure Lansdale: irreverent, outrageous, and unexpectedly profound. He writes with the voice of a Southern preacher who’s seen too much and decided to laugh anyway. There’s gore, sure. But also grit. And rage. And a surprisingly tender awareness of what it means to survive in a cruel world, especially when that cruelty wears a human face.

“Night They Missed the Horror Show” still hits like a loaded shotgun blast—timely, merciless, and necessary. “Bubba Ho-tep” remains a genre-busting classic, and “God of the Razor” proves once again that Lansdale’s monsters are often metaphors wearing meat suits. Racism, religious extremism, and American rot are tackled with razor-sharp narrative teeth.

Joe Hill’s introduction is the perfect setup: smart, reverent, and just self-aware enough to match the tone. This isn’t just a horror collection. It’s a syllabus. If you’ve ever called yourself a horror fan and haven’t read Lansdale—fix that. Now.

Final Verdict:
If horror is a house, Lansdale is the guy in the basement breaking all the rules and building new ones with blood and bile. The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale isn’t just a best-of—it’s a reminder that the genre lives and breathes because writers like Lansdale keep dragging it into uncomfortable, unforgettable places.

Recommended for readers who enjoy:

Splatterpunk with soul

Southern Gothic with bite

Subversive, character-driven horror

Short fiction that leaves a scar

As all good horror should be, these stories are rooted in the vicissitudes of everyday life. Racism, exploitation of the poor, the disabled, the elderly, the use of religion as a tool for evil; nothing is off limits in this collection. Story length is easily digestible and engaging.

An excellent collection that proves Joe R. Lansdale is one of the greatest horror writers. The stories range in tone and length, but remain fun and engaging.

Joe Lansdale has always been a favorite author of mine. I do wish he wrote more books. My favorites being The Bottoms and The Thicket. This is a short story collection, and most of the stories I have read. So this is basically a reprint of his older stories ,but nice to read them again or gift to a friend that's never read the author.

A solid collection of stories by Lansdale. I read most of them previously but will recommend this collection to those looking tong exposed to the author. The Love Doll story gave me a great laugh,

I'm new to Lansdale but I'll happily delve into his canon from this point forward. These stories are bleak, crude, and hilarious. Extremely creative and well written. Stories in this collection I especially enjoyed were: The Folding Man; Hoodoo Man and the Midnight Train; By Bizarre Hands; On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folk; Love Doll; Not From Detroit; and The Hungry Snow. The Folding Man and The Hungry Snow were my favorites. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC and for trusting me with this chaos.

I always enjoy the writing of Joe R. Lansdale, so this was a perfect book for me, I enjoyed getting to read this stories and that it had that horror element that I wanted. Each one was so well done and worked in showcasing Joe R. Lansdale, it had that element that weaves itself into different genres beautifully. I'm glad I got to read this and hope there are more books like this.

As a long time fan of Joe R Lansdale I'm so pleased to see a comprehensive collection of his horror work put together with so much attention and care from publisher and author.
If you're not familiar with Lansdale it's an impossible task to sum up his style or 'genre' - Joe Hill expresses this in a humorous and well written introduction, the author himself says simply that he just writes Lansdale stories. And that's true - whether it's in his award winning The Bottoms, his western tales, the long running Hap and Leonard series, or any other number from his vast back catalogue, the theme, the setting, the tone may vary wildly, but the story is always 'Lansdale'.
The range of material put together is impressive - not just a quickly smashed together set of random shorts - you get everything from a couple of pagers like 'My Dead Dog Bobby' - one of the first stories by the author I read some 25 years ago and made me this was a sick pup (pun kind of intended) who I HAD to read more of, to the novella Bubba Ho-Tep (later turned into a movie with Bruce Campbell playing the ageing Elvis), and in between stories ranging from the sweet (Not from Detroit - one of my top ten favourite short stories of all time) to Dog, Cat and Baby (which reads like a more extreme Gary Larson cartoon), to the truly disturbing like Night They Missed the Horror Show..
Joe Lansdale won't be for everyone - yes, he can write creature feature monsters and the absurd, but his darkest stories are very much rooted in the horror that we inflict upon one another: there's racism, sexual deviance, and things that are at times hard to read - but never done for gratuity: there are always serious underlying messages in the most brutal of his work: be it among the back and forth funny dialogue of Hap and Leonard, or the more historical works, and that's certainly true in the stories here.
If you are familiar with Lansdale you'll know this is going to be a vital collection. If you're not I think the works selected give as close an idea to exactly how good and versatile an author he is.

My thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for an advance copy of this collection featuring a writer who has never disappointed me, with works that cover his career, some adapted to film, some on television, and printed in numerous anthologies, and all of them disturbingly good, in their own way.

Unlike other genres I don't have one book that made me go, oh I like horror, I want to read more. There was Stephen King's Night Shift of course, but if one moved to any suburban town in the early 80's, I think a copy of that came with a basket of fruit from the welcoming committee. Abbot and Costello introduced me to the Universal monsters. Nothing comic related comes to mind, except Swamp Thing and cannibal films were on the illegal cable box, but so was scrambled porn, and I was more eager for that. So maybe it was Joe Lansdale that showed me the power, the majesty and the gore that was horror. I was working in a bookstore when a co-worker talked me into ordering limited edition books. Night Visions 8 was my first, and my introduction to Joe Lansdale. And what an introduction. The language was rough, the stories were yucky, and yet they were full of yuks and other odd humor. Also they were good, real good. Disturbing, dark, unsettling. Things I didn't know I needed. I admit I took Lansdale for granted, knowing that if I saw his name on an anthology, I would get at least one good story. Weird Western, science fiction pastiche, splatterpunk, mystery, revenge tale, all were good, many of them burned in my brain, the plots and the words. The Essential Horror of Joe R. Lansdale features many of these stories, one's that made me wonder what is this, probably why is this, and finally where has this been all my life. Stories that scare, puzzle, amaze and might make one wonder about the human condition, and should we wind down the human experiment.

The book begins with some words from Joe Hill, who was introduced to Lansdale by his father, The King himself. As a writer Hill understand the process and what Lansdale does so well. From there we get the stories, with some brief comments from the author himself, where he got the ideas from, what was going on in life, and what the stories mean. There are a few award winners, and some stories that were cheated of awards. A few that were adapted to television, or nearly made it to television, along with a story about Elvis, JFK and a mummy, that is the inspiration for a great movie. Some splatterpunk stories, a dystopian future filled with zombie strippers in chains. Blind groundskeepers and the hidden life of dogs, cats and babies. And a Weird Western with Wendigos in a winter whiteout.

Lansdale is a dark writer. The world he writes of is dark, mean, evil, chaotic, and strange. Nuns driving the roads at night, looking for victims, or souls trapped on a midnight train. Good doesn't always win, even if good does, people don't know it. The victories against darkness are deep in the shadows were the normal people don't like to look. The language is rough, as are a lot of attitudes, but sadly this is the world we live in. The worst Lansdale conversation about women and race, is probably no different than what is said in the current White House, or even on Fox News. The stories are gross in some spots, but the characters are all unique, all real feeling, even the dark gods who appear. One can see this happening, on some stretch of road on the border of two states with a habit of weird things happening.

A really good introduction to a writer who has been unfairly ignored for as long as I have been reading him. If one likes this there are lot of other collections, even comic books to spend hard-earned money on. A really good author who always delivers, something I can't say about a lot of writers.